September 11, 2001

Michelelast Wednesday

It’s a somber mood here in NYC today. Eighteen years ago I received a call from my brother who I worked for. We had dropped our two daughters off at school. I was getting ready to go into Manhattan. I live right over the east river. He told me to turn on the news..... the rest is still painful. We went to the roof of the three story building we lived in. So many of our neighbors on the block were on the rooftops. It was unreal. I couldn’t believe what I saw with my own eyes.

We called the school. We walked over with our 9 month old boy in the stroller to get our girls. People were coming to pick up their children. In case. Everyone was terrified. Trying to hide it from their children.

God bless all the first responders! I don’t know where that kind of courage and selflessness comes from except directly from God.

I went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting this morning and one of the residents of our town, a member of our City Council, was there to speak. He was a first responder, a volunteer. It was so moving to hear him speak of his time there. That's the first time I have ever heard a first hand account. He said that the area affected by the attack was 17 acres. That seems small to me to have that much destruction in such a (to me) small area. He went into the basement of the World Trade Center and there was a Gap Store that had not been touched. Everything was in it's place, untouched. Also a parking attendant's booth was standing, undamaged. Remarkable. It was an honor to hear his story and I thanked him for his service during an unimaginable time.

I was driving to work when I heard the news. I was going to one of the nursing homes we serviced and they had a large tv in the gathering room and we sat with the residents and watched in horror. Prayers for all involved.

My grandma was driving me to Chicago for my freshman year of college. We were in a hotel in Indiana having breakfast when the first plane hit. I remember my grandma saying it was a horrible accident and she thought it was a small plane, but then the 2nd hit and we knew it wasn't an accident.

We listened to the radio the rest of the car ride. My mom was supposed to fly into Chicago to drop me off at college and was so upset when the flights were cancelled. I remember her crying over the phone that she was going to miss it Eventually she was able to make it.

Such a sad and chaotic time. But heartening to see the country and the world pull together in support.

I first heard about it when I arrived at work that morning. My first reaction was disbelief and my second was fear for my sister, a flight attendant based in Newark. It took hours to finally reach her and to find out that she was ok. Her flight was just landing in Newark as the events started to unfold. As they circled the airport, their captain let his crew know that something terrible had happened. Once the crew got the passengers safely off of the plane, she disembarked. As she was walking through the airport she came to a large window that faced the NYC skyline. As she and many others watched, the towers fell.

What she had to do to get home is too long to share here, but after 2 -3 days, she finally made it. She is still flying and I think that to this day she is feeling the affects of what she experienced and witnessed.

I was working for Cheap Tickets as an airline booking agent/travel agent. I worked a 3pm - 11pm shift. I was jogging in the beautiful Garden(Garden Of The Gods) when another jogger stopped me and said , "No planes are flying". I looked up, then @ her....she said, "You haven't turned on the radio or TV today have you?" No, I had not. When I arrived @ work, the phones were ringing off the hook. Everyone was cancelling their airline tickets. Chaos. I'd stop in, sit at my desk for an hour then go home....for the next 3 months.

I was supposed to be at a meeting in the WTC that day, but I blew it off. I guess you are where you're supposed to be. Fortunately the meeting at that time was on the first floor and everyone made it out ok, but traumatizing for all nonetheless.

If you have Crave TV or Youtube, there is a documentary on there called You are Here, about the 6500 stranded passengers that landed in Grander NFLD. Very interesting and now there is a broadway play called Come from Away.

I never hear anyone talk about WHY this horrible event happened. Am I wrong in thinking America was ravaging countries abroad in the name of 'regime change' and 'nation building', and those people reacted.

Americans died -- people we knew -- there was sorrow and devastation Americans hadn't experienced so personally since the end of the draft. It was something that American civilians had never before experienced at home -- unlike citizens in other nations.

Then WE reacted -- with more of the same. Millions of combatants and civilians have died and continue to die. WHY?

It's so very nuanced, chisue. I agree with you in part. Many decades of our well-intentioned but naive and wrong-headed conduct in the world has triggered violent reactions from nationalist and religious extremists. Our country isn't exempt from having religious extremists who want to tell others what to do based on their personal views, as we've seen in recent years.

Our phone rang early that morning. I answered. It was my husband's youngest brother. He started by saying, "I just wanted to let you guys know I'm ok." Okaaay. Odd, I thought. Then he said, "Are you watching the news?" No, we weren't. He was in the Pentagon, which had just been hit by American Airlines Flight 77.

Our little shop was just next door to a firehouse downtown. It’s heartbreaking. Seven firefighters. One in particular was our friend. We did the flowers for his wedding. A sweeter soul you couldn’t/still can’t find. A wonderful woman I knew lost her son.

You're welcome to your view, happy. As I said before, I think the roots of what has now been over 25 years of problems (don't forget the 1993 World Trade Center attack that we failed to fully understand, and the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, same thing) are complicated and nuanced.

And not nearly as simple as saying "the planners and activists were evil and culpable". In some parts of the world, the same is said about the US and our government's actions.

I was in class, in nursing school when it happened. The secretary called our teacher in class and told her what was happening and then she told us. After class was over we went to the nursing building, where there was a tv and we all stood watching the news in disbelief.

DH was out of town. I was walking back from taking my son to school when my neighbor told me about the first plane. I thought it was an accident. Walked in the door to turn on the tv and was glued for the next 3 days. My younger son, age almost 2, was, thankfully, a Thomas fanatic so he played trains all day or watched PBS while watched the 9” screen tv in the kitchen. PBS extended their children’s programming that week to 6pm instead of noon, so there could be something NOT scary to watch.

Everything for me that week was about the kids p. DH finished his meetings early and ended up renting a car one way to drive home to Chicago from Atlanta, getting in Friday afternoon.

I could hear an occasional plane along the lakeshore at night. I assumed they were military.

liira, I was supposed to go see that movie at the theater with two friends tonight. But I hurt my knee and can barely walk so stayed home (and spent half an hour in the basement during a rare tornado warning!)

I was teaching a college course at the time, walked into the department and saw the broadcast of the second plane hitting the building. I taught my morning class after leading prayer with my students and then afternoon class was cancelled. It was surreal being in a major city with no air traffic. The military reserves were on alert and there was lots of action at a navy/marine post near my neighborhood.